Did CIA search senate committee’s computers?

The CIA is under fire after Senator Dianne Feinstein accused the agency of secretly removing documents from the computer system the Senate Intelligence Committee were using when they were working on an investigation of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. Andrea Mitchell, Kasie Hunt, Howard Fineman and Mark Halperin discuss with Ronan Farrow.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>breaking news, the
cia
is under fire today after senator
dianne feinstein
, accused the agency of secretly removing documents from the
computer system
used by her staff at an agency facility in
northern virginia
where the
intelligence committee
was working on an investigation of the
cia
detention and interrogation program. take a listen.

>>without prior notification or approval,
cia
personnel had conducted a search that was
john brennan
's word, of the committee computers. i have grave concerns that the
cia
search may well have violated the
separation of powers
, principles embodied in the
united states constitution
.

>>cia
a chance to push back today at the
council on foreign relations
as our own
andrea mitchell
moderating the event asked
brennan
about those very accusations.

>>as far as the allegations of
cia
hacking into senate computers, nothing can be further from the truth. we wouldn't do that. that's -- that's just beyond the scope of reason. when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming there has been this enormous spying and hacking, will be proved wrong.

>>beyond the scope of reason.
white house press secretaryjay carney
is currently briefing the reporters and peppered with questions about this just moments ago.

>>here's what i can tell you. this is a matter involving protocols established in
2009
for the interaction between committee staff and
cia
staff and officials as part of the investigation the committee was undergoing. there have been periodic disputes about that process. and as you know, this is under investigation, these matters are under two separate investigations an ig review as well as referral to the
department of justice
. i'm not going to provide an analysis or assessment --

>>joining us now fresh off of her conversation with
brennan
is
andrea mitchell
. nbc chief
foreign affairs
correspondent and host of "
andrea mitchell
reports." thanks so much and it's so exciting to have you on the show.

>>you bet.

>>we've been hearing conflicting reports in different publications about the exact nature of where the computers were. did you get a sense from
brennan
about that and do you have a sense from our sources as to whether they were senator
cia
property computer snz.

>>they were
cia
property and what
dianne feinstein
said on the floor today this was a separate facility. they wanted to do an in-house investigation in the safe rooms but at the insistence of the
cia
, this investigation was launched at the
cia
facility,
stand alone
facility with
cia
computers that they had special access to and they worked every day for months and months with a document dumped from the
cia
which
feinstein
said was millions and millions of documents that were not properly cataloged and had to go through this painstaking process themself, the senate staff who have top security clearances. the suggestion is that they were slow walking it and throwing up obstacles all along. then the
security breach
and that is the breach that both sides are accusing each other of. she went public with the fact that she's outraged frankly, that the
cia
is accusing the senate staff when they were at the facility they were assigned to and went there every day for months and months, went through this investigation and came up with their own conclusions and also with an early draft of a
cia
report, which was a
damning report
, she indicated, about the interrogation and detention practices in the bush years. this was report overseen by
leon panetta
when he was
cia director
. the problem arose when
john brennan
took over the
cia
because he was involved in that detention policy. he was at the cai in the covert field back under
george bush
. under
brennan
's direction or people under his direction, involved in it, took these -- took this investigative work out of these computers which were under the management. senate
intelligence community
.

>>you mentioned the report that the committee was in possession of. senator
feinstein
said earlier when their possession of that report was referred to the
department of justice
for investigation, that constituted intimidation. did
brennan
shed any light on that charge?

>>he denied everything. there is a lawyer at the
cia
who referred it to the
justice department
and that lawyer was one of the people who was mentioned, she said thousands of times,
1600
times during the investigation itself. so that lawyer was involved as well in the interrogation practiceses, that
cia
lawyer whose identity is still covert. she said there was illegal and unconstitutional potentially illegal and unconstitutional hacking into those computers and aattempt to stop the senate from overseeing the
cia
properly.

>>andrea mitchell
, thanks so much for that update. we'll bring more of your reporting on this story.

>>thank.

>>and also on "nightly news" tonight,
stay tuned
for that. we have here more for different perspectives on this, three individuals who are close to this story. first of all, we want them to update us on edward snowden's latest comments just coming in after
feinstein
's statements saying, quote, it's equally if not more concerning we're seeing another merkel effect where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of oerds citizens are violated by our spies but suddenly it's a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing is happening to them, quite the allegation. let's dive more into the political ramifications, we have casey hunt,
howard fineman
and
mark halperin
, a senior analyst at nbc and "time." what are you hearing from members of congress?

>>they are livid for thesenator john mcca in told me that he thinks that we may need an independent investigation of this because there is indications of by as for both sides and no doubt that
john brennan
is a political figure. there is take little built-in bias there but
lindsay graham
said heads should roll if it's true. you have
brennan
'denial of this so senator
saxby chambliss
refused to comment and wouldn't say whether or not he agrees with senator
feinstein
's interpretation of the facts.

>>does edward snowden with a point with the comments he made earlier?

>>absolutely, those senate staffers and senator
feinstein
are standing in the place of citizens generally in the middle of what is now a
surveillance state
. to me the interesting thing here is that the
cia
-- and i know from talking to some former
cia
agents who are around in the bush years and around the time of torture and rendition and so forth, water boarding and rendition, they are circling the wagons and they feel beset and abused and on the defensive. they think the rules were changed on them by the president after the fact, after they were operating under legitimate
legal authority
during the bush years. from what i sense from them and these are people who work with
john brennan
, they are going to resist and have resisted every step of the way the kind of accounting that the president promised the voters when he ran in
2008
, that he has tried to implement since becoming president. that's what's really at issue here. it's what really happened during the bush years and who is to blame for it. who has the authority morally and politically to assign blame? that's what's going on.

>>mark, i'll go to you for the next one. do you think the underlying issues about tortures and detentions will get more play in the press? they've been off radar for a while. how do you think that will impact
president obama
's legacy?

>>those issues are still important and will get more attention. they are great personalities involved here. when you have
dianne feinstein
, a huge supporter of the
intelligence community
making the accusations, that deserves a lot of attention. there's a lot of constitutional issues here. the
intelligence agencies
need oversight by the
legislative branch
. any time there's an accusation that there's
domestic spying
, whether on congress or ordinary citizens deserves a lot of attention. the point
senator mccain
raised is absolutely important. we've gotten away from having independent councils that are statutory. when is it right in our system, spras of powers to have an independent investigation. this case extremes out for it because it is part of the same
executive branch
as the
cia
, if i'm in the
legislative branch
i'm concern about it, even if senator
feinstein
is not absolutely right. the concern she raised is really important, that it be looked out independently or
hand it over
to someone else.

>>this compromise could be a very
big deal
. i'll go to you for the next question, howard, director
brennan
scoffed at the notion of stepping down. what should the president do?

>>not to be too glib about it. but the
justice department
and
cia
are barely in the same branch of government at this point. that's part of the problem. my sense is pretty close to open bureaucratic warfare between the two and deep suspicion and an tag nix, it's a difficult situation. i agree it's the kind of situation where we have to try to find some legitimate outside force who can really look through the whole thing. you have an investigation colliding with investigation and it's a murky situation that unwillingness or inability to confront some of what happened during the bush years. that's the difficulty here.